Darragh O’Neill punts the football during a scrimmage in 2012 in Boulder. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)

BOULDER — Darragh O’Neill punts for the Colorado Buffaloes but is a massive soccer fan. And his favorite player, of course, is Colorado Rapids defender Shane O’Neill, his brother. My story on the pair appears in Friday’s Post and space limitations prevented me from getting Darragh’s views on Shane.

They weren’t the standard accolades. Shane is one year removed from Fairview High yet is starting in the MLS. Instead, Darragh praised Shane’s decision to shun college — he received a scholarship offer from Virginia — to turn pro.

Darragh and I talked shortly after Shane’s United States team went 0-2-1 in the Under-20 World Cup in Turkey. That included a 4-1 thrashing against Ghana, a team the U.S. has never defeated at any level. More than 30 years after the youth soccer explosion, the U.S. is still struggling to become a world power.

Daniel was first introduced to soccer at age 6 while living in Düsseldorf, West Germany. He played youth soccer in West Germany until age 9, and then in Seattle, where he is originally from. He works as the day breaking news editor and also contributes on the Rapids beat.